Historically, television services have been comprised of analog broadcast audio and video signals. Cable television systems now receive broadcasts and retransmit them with other programming to users over land-line networks, typically comprising fiber optic cable and/or coaxial cable. With the recent advent of digital transmission technology, cable television systems are now capable of providing much more than the traditional analog broadcast video. In addition, two-way and advanced one-way communications between a subscriber and a cable system headend are now possible.
In implementing enhanced programming, the home communication terminal (“HCT”), otherwise known as the settop box, has become an important computing device for accessing video services and navigating a subscriber through a maze of services available. In addition to supporting traditional analog broadcast video functionality, digital HCTs (or “DHCTs”) now also support an increasing number of two-way digital services such as video-on-demand.
Each HCT or DHCT (collectively hereinafter “DHCT”) is typically connected to a cable or satellite television network. The DHCTs generally include hardware and software necessary to provide the functionality of the digital television system at the client's site. Preferably, some of the software executed by a DHCT is downloaded and/or updated via the cable television network. Each DHCT typically includes a processor, communication components and memory, and is connected to a television or other display device, such as a personal computer. While many conventional DHCTs are stand-alone devices that are externally connected to a television, a DHCT and/or its functionality may be integrated into a television or personal computer, as will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art.
With the advent of media guide “browsers” for use in cable television systems, viewers (also referred to as “subscribers” or “users”) can scan programming information in a variety of methods. For specialized services such as on-demand video services, hundreds, or even thousands, of title options may be made available to the user for purchase and viewing. The service is not usable if the user is besieged with choices with no effective method for navigating and selecting a desired choice. For example, navigating a library of thousands of movie titles in a scrolling list alphabetically is very cumbersome. Thus, there is a need for user interface that flexibly enables viewers to easily and efficiently browse video-on-demand information to quickly and efficiently select a desired title.
A problem exists in providing cable television services to all users but still affording users the ability to block inappropriate programming content or other types of non-desired programming. Because the interest of users vary between extremes, a need exists to enable delivery of certain types of programming to users interested in receiving it while at the same time enabling users (i.e., parents) from blocking the content from others (i.e., children).
A problem also exists in enabling the user to arbitrarily limit receipt of all types of demand-type services based on a variety of parameters. Because of the premium nature of on demand-type services, a need exists for enabling a user to limit a number of purchases of demand-type services according to a given time span or a given expended amount.
Similarly, a problem exists in providing cable television providers a method to configure various parental control options to be made available to users. Thus, a need exists for an interface that efficiently enables a system operator to configure the cable television system's parental control options or other user control options.
Another problem exists in determining whether a user has a media service session already established when a user accesses the media-on-demand system. Because of system resource constraints, a user may not be permitted to reserve bandwidth for multiple media assets at one time, so the cable television system needs a method to prompt a user to utilize or abandon a previously purchased media asset.